Thunderbird:Testing:Shutdown Hang

If you close, shut down or exit Thunderbird (or Thunderbird stops on its own) and you see the Thunderbird process is running in MS-Windows task manager (taskmgr) or linux process status (ps), then you have a shutdown hang. Or perhaps you encountered a message that "Thunderbird is already running". The "already running" message can be a symptom that is not related to hangs, so it is essential that you check taskgmgr or ps to find thunderbird there; if you don't see thunderbird listed, then you do not have a hang.

There are several Reported Bugs, but please only comment in a bug, or report a new one, and provide detailed information which you can obtain from the Symptoms list below. In other words, just reporting or commenting that you see a hang is not useful - please support your report with data.

Symptoms

To be most helpful, you will want to

• describe your environment (including things which help you avoid the problem)
• determine steps to reproduce, a sequence of steps you did before you shut down
• obtain a hang stacktrace

Questions to answer in a bug report or in a posting to support:

1. Does Thunderbird hang ... :
   • when started in safe mode? If it doesn't hang in safe mode then disable add-ons until you find which add-on is causing the problem, then contact the add-on author.
     • happen without calendar/lightning extension? (bug 532435)
     • happen without enigmail extension?
   • with firewall or antivirus software disabled? If hang goes away then the problem is with that software, not Thunderbird. see firewall or antivirus software
2. Is gloda indexing enabled or disabled? (Tools|Options|Advanced|General)
3. Are your mail accounts pop, imap, or a combination?
4. Did the computer go into sleep or hibernate while Thunderbird was running?
5. Did you change Thunderbird to online or offline status?
6. Did you move your (laptop) computer to a different network?
7. State your operating system and version. State Thunderbird version from Help > About.
8. How often you see the hang (always, rarely, etc)?
9. CPU usage - is usage zero, low, high (maxed or pegged), or other?
10. ldap address book - do you have an ldap directory address book defined?
11. run netstat - any thunderbird connections to ldap, imap mail server, or other protocols shown in the netstat display?
    • MS-Windows: open a dos command window (Start, Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt), then type netstat -abo > netstat.log and hit enter. then type more netstat.log to look for lines that show thunderbird.exe.
    • linux/Mac: do netstat -tp | grep -i thunderbird
12. If imap connections are shown in the netstat results above and if needed by the devoloper, get an imap:5 log in a log file, which can be attached to a bug report
13. Steps to reproduce (STR) - Please determine a list of steps which seem to cause the hang. This list is a sequence of actions (1. xxxx, 2. yyyy, 3. zzz, etc) you did just before you shut down. Plus the things you see. You may need to experiment to find steps that are reliable, and eliminate steps which aren't needed to reproduce the problem. If you can't seem to find a unique set of steps, don't let that stop you from checking the bug list below or filing a bug report ... because the environment information you have collected in earlier steps above may be enough to identify the problem.
14. Obtain a hang stacktrace - Please get a stacktrace using Thunderbird symbol server using _hang_ instructions in the references below, then attach text file containing stacktrace to a bug report. Anywhere you see "Firefox" in the instructions, please substitute "Thunderbird".
    • Windows: WinDbg instructions, and use "!analyze -v -hang" instead of !analyze -v -f
    • Mac: Thunderbird:Testing:Get_A_Debug_Thunderbird_Hang_Stack also Thunderbird:Backtraces_On_OS_X
    • Linux: [1]

To recap, please concisely report: OS & Thunderbird version, frequency, safe mode results, cpu, netstat results, indexing on or off, pop or imap account types, sleep/hibernate usage, online/offline usage, STR. And, if possible, a hang stack trace.

Reported Bugs

After stepping through the Symptoms list above, check the bugs below. If none match your exact symptoms please file a new bug and include the information gathered above.

• All hang bugs: Bugzilla query - open, invalid and fixed bugs from the beginning of time
  • Subset: Only open hang bugs: In the bugzilla query above, click the Status column to show bugs in Status order
  • Status change: Status of bug has changed recently (4 mo.) (includes unfixed)

• Selected open bugs:
  • bug 508263 3.0b3 hangs on exit/shutdown with high cpu, no imap connections [Mac only?] [speculation: losing the network connection/sleeping]
• References:
  • bug 504971 see comment 12 about IDLE
  • bug 504971 see comment 15

Hangs caused by other software:

• bug 532435 Thunderbird 3.0RC 2 does not quit, high cpu, no imap connection and must be killed - with enigmail error [caused by Engimail]
• bug 544684 Application hang, GUI closed, process not killable from task manager caused by McAfee
• and for more, see INVALID bugs in the "All hang bugs" bugzilla query above

Fixed in development (not yet in a shipping version):

• bug 524315 shutdown hang, high cpu, no open imap connections, no ldap connections but has live, blocked ldap threads

Fixed bugs in version 3 (most recent at top):

• bug 494014 shutdown hang, high cpu, no open imap connections
• bug 497598 hang on shutdown appending msg to imap folder via a filter
• bug 487965 hang on shutdown with open imap connections and zero cpu
• bug 420744 Shutdown fails with 100% cpu load when auto-complete over LDAP
• bug 495551 hang on shutdown, zero cpu, few (1-2) imap connections - from imap url initiated during shutdown (modal alert from imap thread / proxy call to UI thread)
• bug 516388 Hang when exiting Archives smart folder is used
• bug 497059 Hang with unreliable wifi connection, either when re-connecting to email server, or on shutdown